In
this charming remake of Ang Lee's Eat Drink Man Woman,
Hispanic chef Martin (Hector Elizondo) opens the movie
making squash blossom soup (which daughter Carmen criticizes
for not including the seeds of the serrano peppers.) And
youngest daughter Maribel (Tamara Mello) precipitates
disaster when she tries to teach her Brazilian boyfriend
(Nikolai Kinski) soup manners. But it's the tortilla soup
scene that is the heart of the movie, when Martin begins to
accept his daughters' love and free will. Daughter Letitia
(Elizabeth Peña) brings home for dinner the man she's just
eloped with:

Orlando (Paul Rodriguez): "I love toppings. I've always
loved toppings. Sometimes I go to restaurants and I just ask
for toppings. You know, I say, the more toppings the
merrier. I, ...that's what I say.
Carmen (Jacqueline Obradors): "You like Tortilla Soup?"
O: "Yes, yes, of course. Yes, my mother used to make it for
us all the time. [pause while he tastes] She never made it
like this. This is, is the best Tortilla Soup I've ever
had."

Tortilla Soup retells the Ang
Lee story fairly closely, retaining many of the scenes from
the original (though it does drop one story-line completely,
which improves the flow of the film a great deal). In fact,
most of the changes made to the movie improve on the
original, and while original films are almost always more
appealing than their descendants, I preferred "Tortilla
Soup" in almost every way (the movie misses the pristine
visual composition of the original, but this is a small
trade-off, and more than made up for by the handsome
production design). It's often said that comedy is much more
difficult to translate than drama, but a movie as enjoyable
as "Tortilla Soup" doesn't need to justify it's existence as
a remake. The cast is filled with actors that have proven
their capability time and time again, and they interact here
with a low-key assurance that radiates throughout the
production and fills the screen with warmth and festive good
spirit.

Standing out from the rest of the excellent cast is Hector
Elizondo, whose portrayal of a man whose life consists, in
about equal measures, of running the kitchen of a highly
successful restaurant and the lives of his three daughters.
Mr. Elizondo projects calm, complete authority in every
scene he is in; even in the cooking scenes, he moves through
the kitchen, handles the food, checks the army of bubbling
pots with the assurance of the master chef. Throughout
his career, Mr. Elizondo has combined his dignified
appearance with a precise comic timing that has led to many
scene-stealing supporting roles as a slow-burning straight
man. Between his perfectly manicured goatee and his gleaming
bald head, he has given his characters a look that
simultaneously penetrates his co-actors and twinkles just
enough to let the audiences members know that he is not just
in on the joke, but knows it better than the stars
themselves. In this movie, he is the star, and it is
wonderful to see him use that cultivated persona in new and
enriching ways. He finds perfect credibility as a man who
uses the strength of his will to make food transform itself
according to his wishes, and yet finds himself baffled when
the same approach fails with his daughters.

The movie itself
finds comic moments throughout based on the
confusion generated when men and women try to interact with
each other and the inability of one side to understand how
the other works. Fortunately, though, they do (work, that
is), and it's a relief to see a comedy that's equally as
perceptive of both men and women, and while the plot of the
film hinges on the clashes between the members of the
family, the characters themselves remain wholly,
delightfully functional.